Past, Present and Future
by Dragon Star Empress
Summary: After nearly fifty years most of Dr. Cockroach's family has died or moved making them hard to track down. Even if he could find them would they be able to accept him? Little hints of Dr.CxSusan
1. Chapter 1

This actually started out as a short little one shot about Dr. C teaching Susan how to dance, but then Dr. C took over and started talking about his past and things just took off from there, it's now about 40 pages long and I'm still not quite done writing it.

If anyone has any ideas for Link's Halloween costume I'd love to here them as I haven't come up with anything good yet.

Reviews and constructive criticism are always appreciated.

* * *

"Alright, last year we waited too late to get our costumes ready, this year we're going to start a month early." Link announced as Susan came out of her room, "You'd be perfect as King Kong or Godzilla or maybe Death, it's a bit over done for normal humans, but a forty nine foot tall Death who could just step on you to kill you would be pretty scary." he told her.

"Why do we always have to be something scary?" Susan asked as she sat down and picked up her mug of coffee.

"Because it's fun to terrify people." Link replied.

"Which is exactly why there are groups of people who still think we should be locked away. We're still different and scary to them and you going out and deliberately scaring people isn't going to help change that." Dr. Cockroach said, "Something more civilized and refined, something to make us seem more human than monster would be better for improving our image with the groups who still don't like us."

"Come on Doc, that would just be boring, it's Halloween, we're allowed to scare people." Link replied.

"Well being boring for a while might be worth it if it helps people accept us. Then again I wouldn't expect you to have the maturity or self control to not scare people." Dr. Cockroach said.

"Maturity and self control? This coming from Mr. I got a lollipop now I have to go get all the candy I can get my hands on." Link replied sarcastically.

Dr. Cockroach glared at him for a second, "I couldn't help it, cockroaches naturally prefer sweets and we had to go door to door looking for aliens anyways, so-" he stopped when General Monger flew into the room and over to Susan.

"Ginormica, we just got a call from the hospital in Modesto, your mother was in an accident and will be in the hospital for the next day or two for observation." General Monger told her.

"Oh my gosh, how badly is she hurt?" Susan asked worriedly.

"Just a broken leg, nothing to worry about." General Monger replied.

"Can I go see her?" Susan asked.

"No, she's going to be in the hospital and then on bed rest for a few days while her leg starts to heal. No sense letting you go out there when you wouldn't be able to get inside to see her anyways. I'll notify you if there are any updates on her condition." General Monger told her.

"Okay, well thank you for letting me know." Susan replied quietly staring sadly down into her coffee.

"You're welcome." General Monger replied before leaving.

"Are you alright my dear?" Dr. Cockroach asked as he walked up next to the coffee mug that Susan was still staring dejectedly into and rested a hand on her arm.

"Yeah, I'm fine." she replied picking up the mug and finishing off the coffee before standing up, "I'll just be in my room if anyone needs me." she said before quickly heading to her room. As soon as the door shut behind her she leaned against the wall, sliding down to sit on the floor. She pulling her knees to her chest and burying her face against them she started to cry.

About fifteen minutes later there was a knock at her door, "Come in." she said, quickly trying to wipe the tears from her face.

Dr, Cockroach stepped into the room and walked over to her, climbing up to stand on her knee so he would be more at eye level with her, "I'm sure your mother will be fine, if it were anything more serious General Monger would have told you." he said.

"I know, I just want to be there for her, she always took such good care of me if I was sick or hurt, even after I moved in to my own place she would insist on coming over and taking care of me when I was sick. Now she's hurt and daddy could probably use some help taking care of her and I can't even fit inside the house to visit her." Susan told him, fighting back more tears.

Dr. Cockroach let out a quite sigh, his antennas drooping a little.

"What is it?" Susan asked.

"You don't realize how lucky you are to know what's happening to her, to know that she'll be alright and that you'll get to see her again once she's recovered enough to be outside." he replied solemnly.

"What do you mean?" Susan asked.

"When I was brought here my family was told I had died in a failed experiment and I was never told about anything that happened to them. By the time we were given our freedom my grandparents and parents were dead along with my two older sisters and my older brother is eighty six and in a nursing home with Alzheimer's so bad that he doesn't even know his own name most of the time. My mother died alone in a nursing home because my sisters had their hands full with their own families and couldn't take care of her. If it weren't for her constant support and encouragement I probably never would have made it through collage and yet when she needed me the most I was locked away here, not even knowing what she was going through. You are quite lucky that things changed so soon after you were brought here." Dr. Cockroach told her.

"I'm so sorry." Susan replied sincerely.

"It was ultimately my own fault, I was the one who was cocky enough to believe that my invention was so perfect that I didn't need to test it on anything else before I used it on my self." Dr. Cockroach replied.

"Why would you want to be part cockroach in the first place? Just so you could be almost indestructible?" Susan asked.

"Indestructibility has its advantages, but Cockroaches have the ability to survive higher amounts of radiation than humans can and that was my main focus. My grandfather on my mothers side worked in a nuclear power plant, when I was seven he was exposed to a dangerous amount of radiation and died a painful death. My mother was devastated and I promised her I'd find a way to make sure that someday that wouldn't happen to anyone else. That was still my goal when I graduated from collage, I thought I could find a way to give humans who work around radioactive materials a higher tolerance to them. I never did get a chance to check the effects of radiation on myself; I passed out shortly after the experiment, woke up here and haven't yet convinced Monger to give me anything radioactive. From what I have been able to learn I gained the near indestructibility of a cockroach and thanks to a failed escape attempt twenty seven years ago, I found out I also have their ability to regrow limbs that have been lost. As well as being able to permanently claim to be twenty nine." Dr. Cockroach told her.

"Permanently twenty nine?" Susan asked raising an eyebrow, "Doesn't pretty much everybody try to claim they never get any older than that?

"Yes, but for me it seems to be true, it was eight days before my thirtieth birthday when I performed the experiment and I'm not quite sure why, but I don't seem to have aged at all since then." Dr. Cockroach told her.

"Wow, so how old are you really?" Susan asked.

"Technically, seventy seven years, but I'm still fit, healthy and sharp as I was the day I was mutated." Dr. Cockroach replied.

"So technically, you're a really, really old guy." Susan replied grinning.

"Yes, just like Link is technically thousands of years old." he said a grin spreading across his face before he began laughing maniacally for a moment before stopping and looking back at Susan, "Sorry." he said.

"It's alright, I'm use to it by now, as long as you're not experimenting on me when you do it, it doesn't bother me." Susan replied, "So you're going to start harassing Link about his age now, aren't you?" she asked.

"Oh absolutely my dear." he replied laughing again before saying, "Now as for this busyness of you not being able to go take care of your mother, I may have a solution." Dr. Cockroach told her.

"Really, how?" Susan asked.

"Well with the lowered security on the monster containment area I was able to sneak out in to the rest of the base and it seems no one outside of this area expects someone to be crawling around on the ceiling making it quite easy to sneak around unnoticed. I found out they have the meteor that hit you stored here and it still has some of the quantonium in it, so I took some samples and began working on finding you a cure. Unfortunately I haven't been able to recreate the extractor that was used on you before; what little technology was salvaged after the ship exploded simply isn't enough to figure out how it worked, at least not without many years of studying it. However after accidentally coming in direct contact with the quantonium, I discover that something in my mutation seems to have given me an immunity to it. So in basically the same way snake antivenom is made I've been able to create a serum that should block the effects of the quantonium in you. Unfortunately it's not a permanent fix, my tests indicate the effects could last anywhere from ten to twelve hours before it wears off and I've only been able to test it on mice and rats so far." Dr. Cockroach told her.

"You found a way to get me back to normal and you hadn't told me yet?" Susan asked a hopeful smile spreading across her face.

"As I said I'm still testing it, I wanted to wait until I was sure it would work before I told you. We suffered so many disappointments trying to get you back to normal when you first came here that I didn't want to get your hopes up only to have it not work. But since there haven't been any negative side effects on the test subjects and you want to be able to go take care of your mother I thought this would be the perfect time to tell you about it. Although I had hoped to find a way to make it permanent." he told her.

"Oh doc, it's fine that it won't be permanent, I've gotten use to being this size and it does have it's advantages. The only thing that really bothers me is not being able to properly celebrate the holidays with my family and stuff like that and this will fix that perfectly." Susan told him, "So shall we go make sure it'll really work?" she asked grinning as she held her hand up next to her knee.

"Of course my dear." he replied stepping onto her hand.

A minute later they were in Dr. Cockroach's lab, Susan sat down along an empty wall while Dr. Cockroach got a few things ready.

"Now, I'm not sure if this will hurt, the mice and rats seemed upset by the size change, but I don't know if it's because of pain or just because they don't understand what's happening to them and it upset them." he warned her as he prepared a large syringe.

"It's alright doc, even if it does hurt I'm sure it'll be worth it to be able to go help take care of my mom." Susan replied.

"Alright then." he said cleaning a spot on the inside of her elbow before inserting the needle.

"How do you feel?" he asked as he removed the needle.

"Kind of tingly, kind of like when your foot falls asleep and starts to wake up. It's not pleasant, but not quite as bad as the pins and needles feeling." Susan replied falling silent as she began to get smaller, "Okay, now it's full fledged pins and needles." she told him between gritted teeth before she completely disappeared inside of her large clothes.

"Susan, are you alright?" Dr. Cockroach asked a few seconds later.

After a moment and some movement from inside the clothing Susan popped her head out, clutching the collar of her jumpsuit over her with one hand, "Aside from the fact that I didn't think about getting normal sized clothes before we did this, I'm fine." she said, blushing, but grinning excitedly.

"Well, it's a good thing I had General Monger get you some normal sized clothes when I knew I was almost done with the testing." Dr. Cockroach replied pulling a paper bag out of a cupboard and handing it to her.

Susan disappeared into her clothes and climbed out a few minutes later wearing an ankle length sky blue dress that was slightly to big and a pair of moccasins. She quickly climbed over the large pile of clothing then excitedly hugged Dr. Cockroach, "Thank you so, so much for this." she said before running out of his lab and to the main room. Grabbing a phone that was hung on the wall incase the monsters needed anything and punched in the number that would connect her to General Monger's office, "I need to talk to General Monger please." she said when a woman answered.

"He's not in right now, would you care to leave a message?" the woman asked.

"Yes, tell him I need clearance to go to Modesto California as soon as possible." she told the woman.

"Alright, I'll have him contact you as soon as he get's back in." the woman told her before hanging up.

Susan walked out into the large room, looking around, "I can't believe how big this place looks from this point of view." she said as Dr. Cockroach walked over to her.

"It would be quite a change." Dr. Cockroach agreed, "So how about a tour of the place from this point of view?" he asked offering her his arms.

"That would be wonderful." she said grinning as she took his arm then entwined her fingers with his, looking down at their hands she sighed, "You really take for granted how amazing it is to simply be able to hold someone else's hand or even be able to touch someone else without worrying about hurting them, until you lose that ability." she said then smiled, "Has any one ever told you, you're the most amazing, brilliant scientist in the world?" she asked.

"Not since the last time I visited my mother before being mutated." he replied.

"Well you are, I can't imagine anyone else could have figured out how to get me back to normal." Susan told him.

"Hey, what's a human doing in here?" B.O.B. asked as they walked past him.

"It's Susan, B.O.B. she's just normal sized now." Dr. Cockroach told him.

B.O.B. looked at her for a moment, "You're really Susan?" he asked, not sounding convinced.

"Of course it's really me." Susan told him.

"Hey, B.O.B. are you ready to go costume hunting yet?" Link asked walking around a corner, "I thought we wer-" he stopped when he saw Susan, "Susan?" he asked in shock.

Susan grinned, "Yep, Doc finally found a way to get me back to normal, at least for a little while." she told him grinning.

"Awesome, if General Monger wasn't so up tight about us having clearance to leave I'd invite you to go costume hunting with B.O.B. and I." Link told her.

"That's alright, as soon as he's available I'm planning on going to see my mom anyways." Susan told him.

"Good for you, I bet she'll be surprised to see you like this. Well, we'll see you later Susan." Link said, "Come on B.O.B. we've got to find the most terrifying costumes on earth." he said as he and B.O.B. headed to where Insectosaurus was waiting for them.

Nearly an hour later Susan was curled up in a chair near Dr. Cockroach's large bookshelves reading a book about the history of various dances, trying to distract herself from how slow time seemed to be passing. She finally let out a frustrated sigh and set the book on a nearby end table, "Where is he? It's like he's deliberately hiding from me to make it take longer to be able to go see my mom." she said.

"I'm sure he'll be here as soon as he can, I believe he mentioned having a meeting he had to attend to today." Dr. Cockroach told her.

"I'll go crazy from waiting before he shows up." she said picking the book up again only to put it back down a few minutes later and got up to begin pacing, "I can't even concentrate to read, I should be at the hospital, visiting my mom by now." she said frustration evident in her voice.

"Perhaps you just need a proper distraction." Dr. Cockroach said walking over and looking at the book she had been reading, "You're interested in dancing?" he asked indicating the book.

"Yes, I've always wanted to learn, Derek and I were going to take dance lessons before the wedding so we could really dance at the reception, but he ended up too busy with work." she shook her head in disbelief, "I can't believe I never noticed what a self centered jerk he was." Susan said.

"He certainly wasn't good enough for you. Would you care for some dance lessons until General Monger arrives?" he asked.

Susan grinned, "That would be wonderful, but I'm not quite sure I could keep up with you. Do you know anything other than that fast dancing you were doing in the space ship?" she asked.

"My dear I come from a family of dancers and as the youngest member of the family I quite often got stuck being the guinea pig for everyone else's practicing as well as my mother's lessons. She taught classic ballroom and Celtic dancing, my sisters were always keeping up on the most recent styles of dance and insisted that I help them practice. Before my grandmother got married she was an understudy for Clara in the Nutcracker and got to perform as head dancer for a season when the original girl broke her foot. Every year after that she insisted on reenacting that highlight of her life for the family, at first with my grandfather playing the nutcracker and then after his death she chose me to take his place. Before they moved from England to the U.S. and he started working at the nuclear power plant my grandfather was a tap dancer, they met when they were both performing at the same theater and always said if it weren't for dancing they never would have met. My grandparents on my father's side were from Ireland and taught both of my parents and every grandchild they could Celtic dancing. My mother often said none of her children learned to walk, they just went strait from crawling to dancing " Dr. Cockroach told her.

"Wow, no wonder you're such a good dancer, I always thought you would have come from a family of scientists." Susan said.

"There's that to," he said, "I had an aunt and uncle who worked in one of the more advanced labs of the time. They got me my first chemistry set and would let me come stay with them for a few weeks in the summer, they had an amazing lab set up in their basement and we would spend hours down there doing experiments." he smiled, "My science teacher always said I leaned as much over the summer as I did at school. Now, what type of dance would you like to learn?" he asked.

"Something slow and easy would probably be best." Susan replied then spun to face the door as it opened and General Monger flew in and over to her door.

Knocking he called, "What do you need clearance to go to Modesto for? I already told you, you won't be able to see your mother."

"I just thought I could go visit her and help take care of her until her leg heals." Susan called over to him grinning when he turned to look at her and a look of shock crossed his face.

"Well well well, so your little experiment worked." General Monger said as he flew over and landed in front of Susan and Dr. Cockroach.

"Of course it worked." Dr. Cockroach replied.

"So how soon can I leave for Modesto?" Susan asked.

"Tomorrow morning at the earliest." General monger replied.

"Tomorrow morning, why do I have to wait that long?" Susan asked.

"Because we don't know how long you will stay this size and I don't want to hear that you suddenly returned to your normal size inside a hospital. It's for your own good, you don't want to suddenly change at you're parents house and end up crushing your mother instead of taking care of her." General Monger told her.

Susan sighed, "I guess you're right." she reluctantly admitted.

"Of course I'm right, now you just sit back and relax while you wait, better yet, relax in your room where you won't damage anything when you change back to your normal size." General Monger told her.

"It should be quite a while before she becomes bigger again." Dr. Cockroach told him.

"Well just make sure she's back in her room before it happens, the last thing I need is to have to replace half the stuff in this room or worse have to deal with some type of explosions if she's to close to any of your equipment when it happens." General Monger replied.

"Don't worry, I will be." Susan told him.

Good, I'll be in my office most of the day, let me know as soon as you return to normal then we'll make the arrangements to get you to Modesto." General Monger told her.

"Alright." Susan said before General Monger left, "I really thought I would be able to see my mom today." she said sadly as she dropped back into the chair she had been sitting in earlier.

"At least you'll be able to be there when she get's home and until then," Dr. Cockroach said then bowed formally and held out his hand, "Would you care to dance my dear?" he asked.

Susan smiled, "Why yes, I'd love to." she replied taking his hand and standing up.

"Now I'll warn I may not be a smooth at this as I was with the dancing on the space ship, it's been a very long time since I had a partner to dance with." Dr. Cockroach told her.

"As long as you keep me distracted from worrying about my mom you'll be doing good enough for me." Susan replied.

"Alight then, we'll start with a the basic box step of a waltz." he told her.

"Okay." Susan replied.

"Now take a step back with your right foot," he told her and she did, "Now bring your left foot back and over to the left and bring your right foot over next to it. Good, now bring your left foot forward, right foot back to where you started and left foot back beside it and repeat." he instructed.

"Keep your back strait and don't look down at your feet." he told her a few minutes later as she continued to practice the steps.

"You're doing beautifully my dear, do you think you're ready to make it a little harder?" he asked several minutes later after she had gotten through several rounds of the steps without missing any steps.

"I think so." Susan replied a little uncertainly.

"Alright, your left hand goes here, on my shoulder," he told her, guiding her hand to his shoulder then placing his right hand on her back just below her left shoulder blade and taking her other hand in his, "Now, just like you were doing before, nice and slow." he said as they started to slowly go through the steps several times until Susan stepped on his foot.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Susan said.

"It's quite alright, you're doing far better than my sisters usually did when they were learning a new dance, especially Harriet, she loved to dance, but learning new ones was quite painful to whoever she practiced with and it was usually me." he said, walking over to his desk and turned a radio on to play some slow classical music, "Anyways, I'm nearly indestructible, don't worry about stepping on my feet, I'll be just fine." he told her as he walked back to her and repositioned their hands and started to lead her through the steps again.

Half an hour later they were moving gracefully around the floor, "You're a natural at this. Do you think you're ready to add a new step?" Dr. Cockroach asked.

"I think so." Susan replied as they stopped so Dr. Cockroach could teach her another step.

---

By that afternoon Susan had learned several different steps, "We should probably stop for lunch, after all this you need to eat and I'm afraid you've probably over done it a bit and may end up rather sore." Dr. Cockroach told her.

"Oh I'm fine, I don't get sore. Although some lunch does sound good." Susan replied then grinned, I can eat real food again! No more mass amounts of nearly tasteless or horribly tasting muck. I don't care how healthy anyone claims that stuff is or how it's the most affordable thing to feed me, I hate it. It'll be so nice to have real food again." she said excitedly heading for the phone.

"Could we please get a pizza delivered here or have someone pick one up?" she asked when a man answered.

"You're in the monster containment area, aren't you ma'am." he asked.

"Yes." Susan replied.

"Food is already provided to that area." he told her.

"Not food fit for a normal sized human, so something else needs to be brought in." Susan told him.

"We have perfectly good food for a human and we can have a smaller portion of it delivered to you if you'd like." he said.

"No, I want real food, I've spent well over a year eating that slop, now I'm at a size where I can eat real food without you people having to pay for mass amounts of it and I want pizza." she told him.

"Look ma'am I'm sorry, but that's all we're authorized to feed you." the man told her.

"What's your name?" Susan asked calmly.

"George Schwab, why?" he asked.

"Because I would hate to step on anyone other than you when I get bigger again. Now get me a sausage and ham pizza with extra cheese and a big bottle of Pepsi or the next time I'm out I'm going to use your car for a skate board and I_accidentally/i_ run you over with it. You shouldn't tell a woman who has gone over a year without normal food and who is usually forty nine feet tall, no, unless you are ready to deal with the consequences. Now are you going to get me my pizza?" Susan asked him, her voice staying calm and even through out the entire threat.

"I- uh, yes ma'am, I'll get that for you right away ma'am." he stuttered out before hanging up the phone.

Dr. Cockroach chuckled, "My dear you are simply amazing when it comes to getting what you want." he told her.

"Do you think I was a little harsh on him?" Susan asked.

"Not at all, it's the only way some of the people around here will listen, perhaps you could convince them to bring me some real food once in a while as well." Dr. Cockroach said.

"I thought you liked your garbage?" Susan said.

"I have gained an acquired taste for it, but I honestly I would usually prefer normal food." Dr. Cockroach told her.

"But why do you eat garbage then?" Susan asked.

"Because the idiot who was in charge when I was brought here thought that since I was part cockroach I should be able to eat garbage and it would save them having to pay to feed me. After my first few weeks here I gave up asking for normal food because it was clear I'd never get any no matter how long I asked. Honestly it disgusted me just as much as it would have any other human when I was first brought here, up until then I had been human and had the same views and opinions as most other humans. Except for the fact that as a scientist I was probably more aware of just how much bacteria and germs can live in garbage, luckily my mutation also gave me the same immunity to those things that a cockroach has." Dr. Cockroach explained.

"That's horrible, I can't believe any one would treat another person like that." Susan said.

"They didn't consider me a person, just a monster, originally there had been talk of simply killing me and dissecting me and over the years, being locked up for so long, there were times I wished they had, but now that things have worked out for the better I'm glad they didn't." Dr. Cockroach told her.

"It was really that bad?" Susan asked.

"Yes, especially in the beginning, General Monger didn't take over here until nineteen sixty five and Andrew Jacks, the man in charge the first three years I was here felt that it was a waste of government money to keep monsters alive. When he couldn't get permission to kill and study us he started doing every thing he could to make sure as little money was spent to keep us alive as possible, which meant the cheapest food he could come up with and nothing for entertainment. After collage I wasn't a very social person, preferring to concentrate on my experiments, but after a couple months of being locked up with nothing to do and no one to talk to, even I started to go a little stir crazy. I was actually rather afraid of Link and B.O.B. when I was first brought here and avoided them for the first few months I was here and there really wasn't anything to do for distraction, since Jacks thought paying for any form of entertainment was a waste of government money. That's how I became so good at creating stuff out of garbage, it was the only thing I had around to work with. Once general Monger started working here he tried to change that a bit, giving each monster something to do for entertainment, but by then the area's budget had been cut back because of Jacks constant cost cutting and convincing his superiors that more money wasn't necessary, so that there wasn't very much money left over for things like that. The hardest thing to deal with though was the loneliness, even if I barely talked to anyone or didn't come out of my lab all week I still always made it home for a family dinner on Sundays to spend time with my parents, my siblings and their families. Or when ever one of my nieces or nephew had plays or games that they were doing." Dr. Cockroach told her.

"And I thought it was bad when I first got here." Susan said, "You said earlier that you had looked for your siblings, if they had families what about their kids, are any of them still around that would remember you?" Susan asked.

"I don't know, my brother never married and I haven't been able to track down my nieces yet, Christy moved several years before our parents died and Harriet's son died when he was twenty one. My nieces Catherine and Sharon must have moved away and gotten married because there's no records for them getting married in the area their parents lived in, but looking them up by their maiden names doesn't come up with any results. I'm still looking, but it's beginning to seem quite impossible." Dr. Cockroach told her.

"I'm sure you'll find them eventually and the fact that you're having such a hard time finding them means they're probably still alive. A friend of my mom's, who does some genealogy, always used to say it's harder to find living people because some of the records are harder to get and there's less likely to be information about them on the internet." Susan told him then started to get up when a door opened and a man came in carrying a large pizza and a bag with a two litter bottle of Pepsi, styrofoam cups and paper plates in it.

Susan only got half way up before she gasped and sat back down. "Sore?" Dr. Cockroach asked.

"Yeah, my legs and feet are really sore, I haven't really gotten sore from overdoing anything for so long." Susan replied.

"The serum restrains all the effects of the quantonium, your strength and durability as well as size." Dr. Cockroach told her as he slid a table over in front of the chair she was sitting in so she wouldn't have to move to eat.

"Here's your pizza ma'am." the man said as he set the pizza and bag on the table.

"Thank you." Susan said sweetly before the man quickly left, "Do you want some?" she asked Dr. Cockroach as she started to get out a plate.

"I'd love some." Dr. Cockroach replied smiling as he pulled a second chair over to the table.

------

Susan spent the rest of the day reading or talking to Dr. Cockroach until Link and B.O.B. got back and invited her to play a few card games.

At nine o'clock Dr. Cockroach said, "It's been eleven hours since you were injected, it would probably be a good idea for you to retire to your room as soon as we're done with this round. The longest the serum worked on any of the test subjects was about twelve hours and it could become rather embarrassing for you if you return your larger size out here."

"But we're having so much fun." Link said.

"He's right though and I am getting pretty tired anyways, it's been a long day." Susan said.

"Just come let me know when it wears off so we can let general Monger know." Dr. Cockroach told her as they finished their game and Susan headed to her room.

---

Just over an hour later Susan came out of her room, returned to her usual size.

"Just as I expected, a little over twelve hours, that should give you plenty of time to do some of the things you've been missing because of being so tall, but hopefully not too long if there is a crises and your abilities are needed." Dr. Cockroach said.

"And it'll give me plenty of time to help take care of mom." Susan said happily.

"Yes. I'll let General Monger know and hopefully you'll be able to leave in the morning." Dr. Cockroach told her.

"Excellent, thank you so much for everything Doc." Susan said.

"You're quite welcome my dear, I'm only glad I was able to get it to work just in time. Now you should get some sleep, you'll have a big day tomorrow." Dr. Cockroach said.

"Alright, see you in the morning, good night Doc." Susan said.

"Good night, sleep well Susan." he replied as he picked up the phone to let General Monger know about the results of the serum.


	2. Chapter 2

By the time Susan came out of her room the next morning Dr. Cockroach was packing several things into a large metal case, "What's that for?" she asked.

"It's for the serum, supplies I need to administer it and a few other things I thought we should have with us just incase of emergencies." Dr. Cockroach explained.

"Us? You're coming with me?" Susan asked.

"Yes, it's safer if I administer the serum and it would be best if I was there just incase there are any unexpected side effects. We've only used it on you once and there could be side effects I didn't foresee, so I need to be there." Dr. Cockroach told her.

"Okay, so how soon can we leave?" Susan asked.

"As soon as General Monger has the plane ready." he replied.

"We're not taking Insectosaurus?" Susan asked.

"No, that would be too dangerous, it would be too difficult to ensure the supplies we're taking with us wouldn't fall off. We'll shrink you before we leave and then General Monger is having a tent taken to be set up in your back yard for you to stay in when you change size." Dr. Cockroach explained.

"Sounds good to me, I just can't wait to leave." Susan replied.

"Leave? Noooooooooooooo, you can't leave us." B.O.B. wailed suddenly wrapping him self around Susan's ankle.

"B.O.B., it' alright, I'm just going to be gone for a week or two and then I'll be coming back." Susan told him as she pulled him off of her leg and set him on the ledge in front of her.

"Were a team, why can't the rest of us come with you?" B.O.B. asked.

"Because I'm just going to be taking care of my mom, I'm not going to be fighting aliens or anything." Susan told him inwardly grimacing at the thought of the damage he could cause if he got inside of her parents house.

"Come on B.O.B., we'll have lots of fun while she's gone, just us guys and Doc is going with her too so he won't be here to complain about us interrupting his experiments. We're going to have a great time while their gone, it'll be like one long party." Link told him then looked up at Susan, "Not that we won't miss you."

Susan nodded understandingly, "I know, I'll miss you guys too." she told him.

----------

An hour and half later Susan was dropped off at the hospital where her mother was while Dr. Cockroach and General Monger went to her house to get everything set up there.

Susan found out what room her mother was in and headed to it, hesitating by the door when she noticed her dad helping her mom into a wheel chair. As soon as her mom was safely seated Susan stepped into the room, "So daddy could you use some help taking care of mom while she recovers? She asked.

Both of her parents stared at her in shock for a long moment before her father asked, "Suzie?"

She grinned, "Yep, daddy it's me." she replied running over to hug him.

"How is this possible?" her mother asked as she hugged her.

"Dr. C found a way to shrink me, it only lasts for about twelve hours at a time, but at least I'll be able to make sure you're well taken care of." Susan replied taking her mom's hand in hers.

"Oh honey you don't have to do that, it's just a broken leg." her mother told her.

"I want to, anyways it's the perfect excuse to stay normal sized as long as possible, being big is great if you're trying to save the world or something, but it's so nice to be able to touch another person without worrying about hurting them." she said hugging her father again.

By the time they got back to the house a large tent had been set up in the back yard as well as a smaller one where Dr. Cockroach was setting up a few things.

"You brought the cockroach with you?" her father asked sounding less than pleased.

"The serum he uses to make me normal is still kind of new and he thought it would be a good idea if he came along incase there are any unexpected side effects. Just give him a chance, he really is nice once you get to know him, they all are, they just take some getting use to." Susan told him.

"Alright sweetie, I guess it's the least we can do after what he's done for you." her father replied.

"I suppose we'll have to deal with him digging through the garbage again won't we?" her mother said sounding disgusted by the thought.

"Actually he likes normal food, he was just forced to eat garbage by the government for so long that he's learned to like it too. So let him eat normal food with us and he should stay out of the garbage." Susan told her.

"The government made him eat garbage, why would they do that?" her mother asked sounding horrified.

"Because he's part cockroach, so they thought that he should be able to eat garbage and it was cheaper than giving him real food. From what he's told me, that place was a nightmare when it was first started up and didn't improve much until we saved the world. I was so lucky things changed so soon after I was taken there." Susan replied as they headed into the house.

* * *

The next week and a half went by quickly as Susan spent most of her days normal sized and helping out with her mom which was an easy job since Dr. Cockroach had been spending quite a bit of time creating inventions to make it easier for her mom to reach things and do stuff for her self without needing help.

Susan had spent the day helping her dad start putting up some of the Halloween decorations until right before the serum wore off.

"What are you working on now?" she asked as she crawled part way out of her tent after returning to her larger size, then laid down with her head on her hands as she watched Dr. Cockroach work on something.

"Motion detectors for some of those animatronic figures your parents have, they'll be far more effective at scaring people if they don't move until people are right up next to them and they aren't expecting them to move." he replied.

"Oh good idea. This is going to be the best Halloween ever, as long as we don't end up with another alien invasion." she said, "Oh, I keep meaning to ask you, what is your real name?" she asked.

"Real name?" he replied.

"Yeah, when you were completely human. My mom's friend who does genealogy is coming over tomorrow and I thought I could ask her if she might be able to help us track down your nieces, but she'll need to know your real name and your parents names." Susan explained.

"Charles, Charles Hudson, my father was Richard and my mother's name was Mae Lindley." he replied, "Do you really think she'll be able to find them" he asked hopefully.

"I think so, she's been doing genealogy for as long as we've known her and if she can't she can probably tell us who can." Susan replied.

"That would be wonderful." Dr. Cockroach said.

* * *

The next afternoon Susan had just helped her mother into a chair in the living room when there was a knock at the door, "Hello Mrs. Logan, it's so nice to see you again." Susan said when she answered the door.

"It's good to see you again too and back to normal, I couldn't believe it when your mother told me on the phone." Mrs. Logan replied.

"Where's the lollipop bug guy?" a little girl asked peaking around the older woman's legs.

"I hope you don't mind, my grandkids are spending the week with Will and I and she over heard me telling Will that you had a mad scientist who was part man and part bug staying here who had gotten you back to normal and Mae started insisting that she had to come with me. She kept going on about a bug man and a swirlypop she got last Halloween." Mrs. Logan explained.

Susan smiled, "She was a little black kitty last year wasn't she?" she asked.

"Yes." Mrs. Logan replied.

"I know exactly what she's talking about, Dr. C had one last year and well, one look at those big kitty eyes and he just had to give it to her." Susan explained, "Do you want to go see the bug guy?" Susan asked kneeling down to look at Mae.

"Yes!" she replied happily.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Mrs. Logan asked.

"It'll be fine, he may look a little scary at first, but he's really quite sweet." Susan assured her as she took Mae's hand and lead her through the house and out the back door.

"Oh mister lollipop bug man, you've got an admirer." Susan called as they stepped out the back door.

A moment later Dr. Cockroach stepped out of his tent, "Lollipop bug man?" he asked raising an eyebrow and sounding slightly confused.

"Lollipop guy!" Mae squealed excitedly pulling her hand away from Susan's and running over to hug him.

"Well now who is this?" Dr. Cockroach asked kneeling to eye level with her when she finally let go of him, "You look so familiar, but I can't quite put my finger on where I've seen you before."

"Her name is Mae, the last time you saw her she had whiskers and-" Susan started to say.

"You gave me a swirlypop." Mae said grinning and hugging him again.

Dr. Cockroach smiled returning the hug, "No wonder you looked so familiar." he said.

"Come back inside now dear, we should go visit with Mrs. Murphy for a while." Mrs. Logan said.

"I wanna stay with the lollipop guy, it'll be boring while you visit." Mae said clinging to Dr. Cockroach's hand.

"She's welcome to stay out here, I don't mind keeping an eye on her." Dr. Cockroach told her.

Mrs. Logan hesitated a moment then said, "Well if your sure it won't be any trouble, just let me know if you need me to take her."

"I will." Dr. Cockroach replied.

"Alright then, you behave, Mae." Mrs. Logan said.

"I will grandma." Mae replied.

-

"You're sure he'll be alright with keeping an eye on her?" Mrs. Logan asked once they were back inside.

"They'll be fine, from what I've seen he's actually pretty good with kids." Susan replied as they walked back into the living room to join her mother.

Half an hour later the three women decided it was too nice of a day to stay inside and moved out to sit on the back porch.

As they stepped out on to the porch they heard Mae say, "You throw like my brother."

"Mae, that's not very nice." Mrs. Logan scolded.

"But he does." Mae replied from where she was standing tossing a ball back and forth with Dr. Cockroach.

"It's quite alright, she's right I've never been able to throw very well." Dr. Cockroach admitted.

"Let's play hide and seek." Mae suggested.

"Okay." Dr. Cockroach agreed.

"Hide your eyes and count to fifty and no peaking." Mae told him.

-

"So throwing like your son is an insult?" Susan asked looking back at Mrs. Logan.

"Throwing like any of the men in my family is, it seems to be an inherited trait, my grandfather, uncle, son and grandson all couldn't throw a decent pitch if their lives depended on it." Mrs. Logan explained.

"Speaking of family, I was wondering if you could help us try to locate Dr. C's family?" Susan asked.

"His family?" Mrs. Logan asked, "I always thought he was some type of mutant cockroach."

"No, he was originally human and became part cockroach, his appearance is because of an unexpected side effect of an experiment. Then the government locked him up and he hasn't had any contact with his family in almost fifty years and the few who might still be alive have moved and he can't find them." Susan explained.

"I'd love to help, where was he originally from?" Mrs. Logan asked.

"A small town called Arco in Idaho." Susan told her.

"Oh, this might not be too hard, I was raised there until my parents moved when I was seventeen. I still have a couple of friends from when I was growing up that I'm still in contact with. Wouldn't it just be fascinating if one of my friends were part of his missing family." Mrs. Logan said.

"That would be amazing." Mrs. Murphy replied.

"Come back here with that!" Dr. Cockroach suddenly called drawing all three women's attention as Mae suddenly ran out of his tent with one of his lab coats draped over her head and Dr. Cockroach close behind her.

"Mae, give that back this instant!" Mrs. Logan said standing up, ready to grab her granddaughter as she ran buy.

Mae suddenly stopped pulling the coat down over her face then turned around and started making ghost noises, "Ghosts don't scare mad scientists." Dr. Cockroach said scooping her up and tickling her belly while laughing maniacally as she giggled and tried to get away.

Susan laughed, "See I told you, he's great with ki-" she stopped when she looked back at Mrs. Logan, who's face had gone as white as one of Dr. Cockroach's coats, her hands shaking slightly as she stared at him with wide eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

"Cathy, what's wrong?" Mrs. Murphy asked worriedly.

"Th- that laugh-" Mrs. Logan stuttered out.

"It's alright, he does that all the time, it is a little creepy at first, but you kind of get use to it after a while." Mrs. Murphy told her.

"No, that- that's not what I meant. What was his name, when he was human." Mrs. Logan asked barely above a whisper, her voice shaking.

"Charles Hudson." Susan replied.

Mrs. Logan's legs suddenly seemed to give out and Susan shot out of her chair, just barely managing to keep her from hitting the ground as her eyes rolled back into her head, "Doc, I could use a hand, I'm not as strong as I used to be." Susan called.

Dr. Cockroach set Mae down and ran over to help Susan get Mrs. Logan back into her chair, "What happened?" he asked.

"I- I'm not quite one hundred percent sure." Susan replied.

"Well a guess would be better than nothing, she looks like she's seen a ghost." Dr. Cockroach said checking her pulse.

"She may have." Susan replied as Mrs. Logan's eyes reopened and she just stared at Dr. Cockroach for a second.

"Un- uncle C.?" Mrs. Logan finally asked her voice still shaking as tears began to fill her eyes.

Dr. Cockroach took a step back, his eyes widening with shock as he stared at her for a moment, "Katie?" he said barely above a whisper.

"Oh my gosh, it really is you." Mrs. Logan said suddenly jumping out of her chair with incredible speed for a woman her age, and threw her arms around his neck, "They said you were dead, they said something went wrong with on of your experiments and your whole lab burned down with you in it." she sobbed.

"Oh Katie, I've missed you so much." Dr. Cockroach said returning the hug and holding her tightly as she cried, "I wasn't even sure you would remember me if I could find you, you were only seven the last time I saw you."

"You were the most insane, fun uncle on earth, my memories of you are probably the clearest and most treasured memories I have from when I was that young." Catherine told him.

"Grandma, why are you crying?" Mae asked walking up and tugging on Catherine's skirt.

Catherine finally let go of Dr. Cockroach and knelt down in front of Mae, "Do you remember when I told you about my crazy uncle?" she asked her.

Mae grinned, "The one who built you your own carousel and made you a bike that looked like a big scary dragon and roared and breathed smoke to scare off the kids who made fun of you when you came home from school?" she asked.

Susan raised an eyebrow at Dr. Cockroach, "You built a dragon bike to scare kids with?" she asked.

"Her parents were going through some tough times when she started going to school and she had to ride to school on a kind of rusty old bike and she came to me crying and saying she didn't want to go back to school because the other kids made fun of her for having a piece of junk for a bike. I had to do something," he said then grinned, "You should have seen how fast those little brats took off running the first time they saw it." he said laughing maniacally and was joined by a similar laugh from Catherine.

"Oh that was the most fun I ever had going to school." Catherine said standing up.

Dr. Cockroach grinned, "You can still do the laugh." he said.

"Of course I can, we spent hours perfecting it just to annoy my mom and it came in quite handy when kids would stop to harass me in the halls in high school, I would just start laughing like that and they would slowly back away and then leave as quickly as possible. No one ever bothered to harass me for too long." Catherine told him.

"See, I told your mom it would be useful someday." Dr. Cockroach replied.

"Grandma, what about your crazy uncle?" Mae asked tugging at her skirt again.

"Well, honey, he looks a lot different than he did in those pictures I showed you, but the bug man is my uncle." Catherine told her.

Mae looked back and forth between Dr. Cockroach and Catherine for a long moment then asked, "He's really your crazy uncle?"

"Yes, he is." Catherine replied.

"Does that mean he's my uncle too?" Mae asked.

"Yes it does, he's your great, great uncle." Catherine told her.

Mae grinned, "Yep, he is really great, can we come over and play with him more often?" she asked.

"As long as he's not busy, I think we could arrange that." Catherine told her.

"You can come visit me as often as you want." Dr. Cockroach said scooping Mae up into his arms, "But you have to learn the laugh." he told her.

"Grandma already taught me the laugh." Mae told him as she started to laugh maniacally and was joined by Catherine and Dr. Cockroach.

"Okay, this is getting a little creepy." Mrs. Murphy said quietly to Susan.

"I don't know, I think it's kind of cute." Susan replied smiling.

* * *

The next day Catherine came back over and brought her Daughter Ella and Ella's son Samuel who was nine and her son's other children Richard who was twelve and Angela who was thirteen.

"Come on Doc, aren't you coming out?" Susan asked stepping into Dr. Cockroach's tent.

"Yes, I just- what if they don't like me? What if they're afraid of me?" Dr. Cockroach asked, "I mean, Katie knew me before and Mae knew me from last Halloween. I've never met any of these other people before, they have no reason to accept me or want anything to do with me." he told her.

"They're your family, I'm sure they'll be willing to give you a chance. It seems you left quite an impression on Catherine and she passed those memories on to her children and grandchildren. That alone may make them more likely to accept you." Susan told him resting a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"I certainly hope you're right." he replied before hesitantly heading out of the tent.

As Dr. Cockroach came out of the tent Catherine walked over and took his arm leading him over to where the others were waiting, "This is my uncle Charles; uncle C., this is my daughter, Ella, her son Samuel and my son's children Richard and Angela." she said indicating each one.

Mae ran forward to hug him, "And of course you already know Mae." Catherine said chuckling.

Ella had taken a couple steps back and was staring at Dr. Cockroach with a combination of shock and fear, while Samuel stepped forward looking him over then said, "Man you've got a huge head and freaky big eyes."

"And a big brain and excellent vision." Dr. Cockroach replied.

"That makes sense." Samuel replied, "Nice to meet you uncle Charles." he said reaching out and shaking Dr. Cockroach's hand.

"You're really one of those monsters that saved the world from the aliens?" Richard asked.

"Yes." Dr. Cockroach replied.

"He personally took down the entire space ship's security system." Susan added.

"Wait until the kids at school hear this, let's see them try to make fun of us when we tell them our uncle helped take out the aliens, this is so totally awesome." Angela said.

"Yeah, this is pretty cool, kinda freaky, but cool." Richard agreed.

"Ella honey, say hello to your uncle, he doesn't bite." Catherine said.

"As far as she knows at least." Samuel whispered to the other two children, causing them to snicker.

"Of course I don't bite, I just string up naughty children by their toes and tickle them to death." Dr. Cockroach said staring at them and causing all three kids to instantly fall silent before returning his attention to Ella, "It's alright, I never expected all of my family to be able to accept me like this or to even be able to be around me without feeling uncomfortable or afraid. Maybe you'll be more comfortable around me in the future and if not that's fine, I understand." he told Ella.

"Thank you." Ella replied gratefully, "Mom I think I'm going to head home."

Catherine let out a sigh, "Alright dear."

"Do any of you kids want to come with me?" Ella asked the children.

"No way, this is so cool, grandma can bring me home later." Samuel replied.

"Yeah, this is awesome, I'm staying." Angela replied.

"Sure you probably just want to see if you've found a relative who can actually understand your geek talk." Richard said, "I'm staying too." he told Ella.

"Alright, I'll see you guys later." Ella said kneeling down to hug Samuel, "You be careful." she whispered to him as she hugged him.

"I'll be fine mom." he replied.

Once Ella left, Catherine said, "I'm so sorry about her, she's always had this horrible fear of bugs, I had just hoped she'd be able to get over that to meet you."

"It's quite alright, I never expected everyone to be able to accept me anyways." he said wrapping an arm around her shoulders, "I've got you back in my life and the kids seem willing to accept me, I was expecting to come out and have them all be afraid of me or just plain run off screaming before even giving me a chance. At least Ella tried and who knows maybe someday she won't be so uncomfortable around me."

"I guess your right, it could have gone worse." Catherine admitted.

"Now what's this about geek talk?" he asked looking at Angela.

"It's nothing." Angela replied looking at the ground.

"She's like this super genius, she's already taking collage courses along with her high school work and she'll start talking about scientific stuff and it doesn't make any sense, sometimes I think she's just making words up to confuse us." Richard told him, "Even dad who is like really smart can't understand her sometimes, so she just hides out in her room with her books most of the time."

"There's nothing wrong with being smart." Dr. Cockroach said resting his hand on Angela's shoulder.

"Unless you just confuse everyone because no body has a clue what your talking about." Angela replied still looking at the ground.

"Well what are you interested in?" Dr. Cockroach asked.

"Well I've never run into any part of science that I didn't like, but I'm studying gene and cell altering to help prevent diseases right now." Angela replied.

Dr. Cockroach chuckled, "Just don't do any experimenting on yourself, it can be rather dangerous, genetic altering was my specialty and you can see how well my early experimenting turned out." he said.

"How did it happen? Grandma said it was an accident with an experiment that you were doing, but that's all she told us." Angel said.

Dr. Cockroach began explaining about his grandfather's death and then about his experimenting, within minutes he and Angela we animatedly discussing various scientific theories and facts that left everyone else feeling like they were watching a conversation in completely different language.

"I've got fresh cookies in the house if anyone is interested." Susan quietly told Catherine, Samuel, Richard and Mae.

"Good, because just listening to them is making my head hurt." Richard replied.

"It's been a long time since Dr. C. had someone to talk to about science that really understands what he's talking about and I have a feeling you're sister goes through the same thing." Susan replied as they headed into the house.

* * *

Yes, I have this odd obsession with Dr. C's laugh, I can't help it, it makes me smile every time I hear it.


	4. Chapter 4

A couple days later general Monger showed up at the Murphy's front door, "So are you two ready to come back yet?" he asked when Susan answered the door, "Surly by now your mother has recovered enough to not constantly need your help."

"Well, mom's doing great, but something else happened and I really hate to leave so soon, do you think we could just stay until the Halloween party?" Susan asked.

"Do you have any idea how many times Link and B.O.B. have asked when you two are coming back? What on earth could have come up, that would require you to stay here nearly another two weeks? " General Monger asked.

"Not really what happened, but who happened." Susan said leading him to the back yard.

"What on earth is this?" General Monger asked in shock as he stared at the sight in the back yard.

Dr. Cockroach was curled on the ground, clutching a soft ball to his chest as two boys and two girls, struggled to fight the ball away from him.

"He found his family. As for specifics about why he's being pounded into the ground, that you'd have to ask him about, because I have no idea." Susan told him.

General Monger stepped the rest of the way around the corner of the house and yelled, "Attention!" successfully stopping the children who jumped to their feet and stood behind Dr. Cockroach as he sat up, Indian style, still clutching the ball to his chest and grinning, "What is going on here?" he demanded.

"We were just playing ball." Samuel replied.

"Yeah, just playing a game of keep the ball away from uncle C." Richard replied.

"Until uncle C. managed to get the ball, then it became a game of get the ball away from him." Angela added.

"Which obviously I won." Dr. Cockroach said.

Mae walked around in front of him and hugged him, "I love you uncle C." she said giving him a hug.

"I love you too." he replied setting the ball on the ground as he retuned the hug.

As Mae pulled back from the hug she suddenly grabbed the ball and darted behind the other three children.

"We win!" the older boy said then began to laugh maniacally and was quickly joined by the other three.

"I'll beat you next time." Dr. Cockroach told them before joining in with the laughing.

"Dear Lord its like a contagious disease." General Monger said before suddenly jumping several feet away from Susan when she joined in.

At the sight of the startled general all of the children fell into fits of giggles and laughter, "See kids even the toughest of people can be unnerved by a good laugh if they aren't expecting it." Dr. Cockroach told them.

"Okay, if the kids are related to him I can understand it, but why are you laughing like that?" General Monger asked straitening his uniform.

"Because the kids begged me to learn it and I couldn't say no." Susan replied then grinned, "And he's right it does have the most entertaining effects on people."

"So who are these little hooligans?" General Monger asked.

Dr. Cockroach stood up, stepping behind the children he rested a hand on Mae's head, "These dear sweat children are my nieces and nephews, this is Mae and her sister Angela and their brother Richard." he said indicating each of them, "they're my nieces son's children. And this is Samuel." he told him indicating the younger boy, "He's my nieces daughter's son."

"Well, I'm glad you've found your family, but you really should be coming back to the base soon." General Monger told him.

"No!" was the instant cry from all four children as they suddenly hugged and clung to Dr. Cockroach.

"We're having to much fun with him." Samuel said.

"Yeah, he's free now you can't make him go back. You people kept him locked up for too long, now we have to make up for lost time." Richard said.

"Yeah, you can't take him away from us, we won't let you., I need someone to talk to who understands me." Angela said.

Mae let go of Dr. Cockroach's arm, walked over to General Monger and took his hand in hers then looked up at him with huge eyes and a trembling lip, "Please let uncle C. stay, we love him and need him here with us." she said, tears beginning to well up in her eyes.

General Monger stared down at her, opening and closing his mouth a few times before he finally said, "Oh fine, until the Halloween party, but then he really does need to come back, but he can come visit you whenever he wants to, alright?"

Mae instantly cheered up and smiled, "Thank you mister army man." she said hugging him before running over and jumping into Dr. Cockroach's arms, knocking him off balance and causing him and the children who had still been holding onto him to fall to the ground, leaving them all in a laughing, giggling heap.

"I'll see you in two weeks, just try not to let them terrorize the whole neighbor hood with that laughing thing they do." General Monger told her.

"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on them." Susan replied smiling.

* * *

A few days later, Ella walked into the Murphy's back yard with the four children, "I hope it's not too early, but the kids kept insisting that we had to come over." she said to Susan who was currently at her full size and stretched out on her back staring up at the clouds.

"Oh that's fine," Susan said rolling over to look at her, then she grinned at the kids, "He's still asleep, but you can go wake him up if you want to." she told them and they ran over and slipped into his tent.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Ella asked sounding a little worried.

"They'll be fine, he loves them and he really doesn't bite." Susan told her.

"I know, I guess that cockroach head just creeps me out a little." Ella replied.

Suddenly a chorus of maniacal laughter filled the air, there was a startled gasp and Dr. Cockroach's whole tent shook as if something had hit one of the walls. Susan pulled on of the tents flaps back in time to see Dr. Cockroach struggling to get out from between his cot and the wall of the tent.

"You taught them well, didn't you?" Susan teased as he finally managed to get himself out.

"Too well." Dr. Cockroach replied stepping out of his tent with the children, "What on earth are you children doing here this early anyways.

"It is already nine o'clock." Richard pointed out.

"It's also a Saturday, shouldn't you be sleeping in or watching cartoons?" Dr. Cockroach asked.

"No. we still need to get our Halloween costumes and we thought you and Susan could come help us pick them out." Angela said.

"What do you say Susan, want to help the kids pick out their costumes?" Dr. Cockroach asked.

"I'd love too." Susan replied.

A while later Susan had been shrunk and they arrived at a large costume shop, "Mae and I will go with Susan and Richard and Sam can go with uncle C." Angela said as they walked into the store.

"Sounds like a good plan to me." Susan replied.

"I'll bet we pick better costumes than you do." Richard said.

"No way, ours will be way better than yours." Angela replied before grabbing Susan's hand and dragging her off.

-------

Several minutes later

"What about this one?" Mae asked holding up a fairy costume.

"It looks beautiful." Susan replied, "What do you think of this one for me?"

"A zombie cheerleader?" Angela asked raising an eyebrow.

"Sure, that's what I was going to be last year, but I never actually got a chance because of those mutant pumpkins." Susan replied.

"I'm sure we can find you something better than that." Angela told her as she went to look through more costumes.

A few minutes later she returned with a princes dress, "How about this one?"

"Link always says we're supposed to be scary." Susan said taking the dress and looking at it, then smiled, "But I won't be a giant when I wear this." she added heading into a dressing room to try the dress on.

A couple minutes later she stepped out wearing the full-length, peach dress, the neck line was just off the shoulders with somewhat puffy sleeves with a matching light peach drape around the sides and back of the darker peach skirt.

"It's perfect." Angela said handing Susan a pair of clear high healed sandals to try on, "Now we just have to find you a prince."

Mae giggled, "What's so funny?" Susan asked her.

Mae hesitated a moment then, "You're Cinderella and I can be you're fairy godmother." she said waving around a wand, "But not the old type of fairy godmother." she added.

"Sounds good, what about you Angela, you want to be the pumpkin carriage or the mice?" Susan asked.

Angela shuddered, "Absolutely no pumpkins, they still kind of creep me out." she said.

"Good point." Susan replied. "So what do you want to be."

"I know what she can be." Mae said grabbing something off of a shelf and running over to Angela and handing her a bow and a quiver of arrows with hearts for tips.

"Actually I saw something while I was looking for your dress that would be cool." Angela replied setting the bow and arrows down and digging through a rack of costumes until she pulled out a purple gray body suit with a short off white tunic, tail and bat like wings.

Susan grinned and took the costume to look at it, "I can't believe they still have one of these, it's been years since I've seen one. I use to watch Gargoyles all the time when I was younger." she said handing the costume back to Angela.

"You used to watch it? Cool, our baby sitter let us watch her DVDs of it and we've seen the whole series now." Angela said.

"Yep, never missed it, I always loved how it had lots of action and that little bit of romance between Elisa and Goliath." Susan replied.

"Yeah, too bad they stopped making it right after they finally admitted they loved each other. It was so romantic that Elisa fell in love with Goliath even though he didn't look human." Angela said.

"Yes, it was." Susan replied.

"Do you think a real person would ever be able to see past differences like that enough to want to get involved with someone that different?" Angela asked.

"I think so, if they're comfortable enough to be around someone who's that different long enough to get to know them and fall in love with them. Then, if it's true love, I don't think they'd have a problem admitting it even if other people may not approve." Susan replied.

"Cool, makes sense to me." Angela replied smiling.

"This costume will be perfect, Angela the human will become Angela the gargoyle." Susan said handing the costume back to her.

"Yep, I always thought it was cool that we have the same name." Angela replied before going to try on her costume.

--

Else were in the store.

"What about this one?" Dr. Cockroach asked holding up a head piece with various wires radiating out from it with the planets on them.

"Oh come on, how many geeky costumes can one store have and why are you so good at finding them all." Richard said.

"Maybe because I was about Sam's age the last time I thought about Halloween costumes." Dr. Cockroach replied.

"Here this one is cool, try it on." Richard said handing him a costume and shoving him towards the dressing room.

"Isn't this a little fancy?" Dr. Cockroach asked when he came back out wearing black pants, a white shirt and a black jacket with large amounts of gold trim.

"No, it looks good on you, you're like prince charming or something, you should definitely get it, then we'll just have to find you a princess." Richard replied, Samuel suddenly stepping behind him and hiding his face against his back, "Lets not tell the girls what costumes we got, I want to see if they beg us to tell them before Halloween." he suggested.

"Okay." Samuel and Dr. Cockroach agreed.

"I'll go tell the girls we have to check out separately." Richard said running off to the other side of the store.

Susan looked up when Richard walked through the racks of clothes and Angela ran over to him, talking to him quietly for a moment and grinning before walking back over to Susan.

"What was that all about?" Susan asked.

"They're checking out separately, they don't want us to know what costumes they got until Halloween." She replied, "I think we should do the same thing and not let them see what we got either."

"Sounds fair to me." Susan replied.

A little while later they all met in front of the shop and headed back to the Murphy's house.

"We still have a couple hours before Ella will be here to pick you up, what should we do until then?" Dr. Cockroach asked when they got back to the house.

"Grandma said you use to be able to dance right?" Richard asked.

"Oh absolutely." Dr. Cockroach replied smiling.

"Bet you couldn't beat me at this." Richard said picking up a large bag he had brought with him and setting out a wii and two DDR mats, "You're probably too old to even know what it is, but I'll teach you."

Susan clamped her hands over her mouth to stifle a laugh, "What is it?" Angela asked.

"You'll see." Susan replied grinning.

"Well, if it's dancing I'm sure I can handle it." Dr. Cockroach replied and helped Richard set it up.

Several minutes later they started the game while Susan, Mae, Angela and Samuel sat back to enjoy the show.

After the first song Richard said, "You just got lucky wait until we get into the more complicated and faster steps, then you're doomed, no body can beat me at this."

"I'm sure that's all it was, just random luck." Dr. Cockroach agreed, grinning and winking at Susan before starting the next round.

"What do you know that we don't?" Angel asked quietly.

"That your uncle is the most amazing dancer on earth and before it's over your brother's over confidence if probably going to get knocked down a peg or two." Susan replied smiling.

About ten minutes later Mrs. Murphy came into the living room and sat down next to Susan, "I know you said he could dance, but this is fascinating." she said after a moment.

"You should have seen him dance his way through an alien security code, now that was amazing, he hasn't even pulled out all his moves yet." Susan replied quietly.

Half an hour later Dr. Cockroach and Richard were both looking a little tired, but still perfectly tied and neither one was willing to be the first to give up or suggest taking a break.

"Come on Doc just take him down before you both collapse." Susan finally said.

"I suppose it would be the merciful thing to do." Dr. Cockroach replied.

"Ha, he may be able to keep up with me, but no one can beat me." Richard said although he sounded less confident than he had earlier.

"My dear boy you are sorely mistaken and as much as it pains me to do this to my own nephew, you are going down." Dr. Cockroach told him before dropping to his hands and beginning a series of moves similar to what he had done in the space ship.

Richard managed to keep going for about thirty more seconds before he finally stopped and just stood back and watched, mouth hanging slightly open as Dr. Cockroach finished off the dance and bowed when Susan, her mother and the other kids started clapping.

"How did you learn to dance like that on a DDR system?" Richard asked in awe.

"Boredom," Dr. Cockroach replied dropping to sit on the floor and catch his breath, "There wasn't much to do at the base before we defeated that alien and over a couple of years I managed to find all the main pieces and built my own. I spent quite a bit of time practicing and creating new moves." he explained.

Richard sat down, leaning his back against Dr. Cockroach's, "Think you could teach me some of those moves?" he asked.

Dr. Cockroach chuckled, "I'd be honored to, it would seem that it runs in our family that the men have a sever lack of talent at throwing, but that talent seems to be turned in to extra dancing skills, but it still won't be easy. By the time I'm through with you you'll be able to take on alien computers." he told him.

"Alien computers?" Richard asked.

"Yep, if it weren't for his dance skills we may not have been able to take down that alien ship." Susan told him.

"You've got to tell us about that." Richard said.

"Susan my dear, might you want to start the story while I catch my breath?" Dr. Cockroach asked.

"Of course." Susan replied as Angela, Mae and Samuel sat in a semi circle in front of her to listen.


	5. Chapter 5

A few days later a friend of Susan's came over to visit her, "It's so nice to have you back to normal for a while." Valerie said as Susan answered the door.

"I know, I've missed it so much, there's so much you can do at this size that you take for granted until you're too big to." Susan replied.

"And you said that cockroach thing was the one who figured out how to get you back to normal?" Valerie asked.

"Yes, Dr. Cockroach, he's quite a genius." Susan replied as they stepped out onto the back porch to sit in the sun while they talked.

Susan and Valerie both jumped slightly when a chorus of maniacal laughter rang out from Dr. Cockroach's tent shortly followed by a cloud of smoke and Dr. Cockroach and all four children came out of the tent, choking and coughing a little.

"I take it you guys got the fog machine to work?" Susan asked.

"Yep, this is going to be the best Halloween party ever." Samuel told her.

"We're not done yet." Dr. Cockroach told them.

"What are we going to do next?" Angela asked as the kids all formed a tight circle around in front of him and he knelt down to whisper something to them.

A few minutes later there was another round of maniacal laughter and the kids all split into different directions searching for what ever he needed for their next invention while Dr. Cockroach and Mae started looking through a pile of spare parts that he had collected.

"He's taught those poor kids to laugh like that?" Valerie asked.

"Well, some of them, Mae and Richard were already pretty good at it, their grandmother taught them." Susan replied.

"Its such a creepy sound." Valerie said.

"I don't know, once you get use to it it's not that bad, and it's so cute when he get's the kids doing it with him." Susan replied.

"And that cockroach head is pretty disgusting, I mean geeze it looks like each eye is as big as a human head with a another one or two stuck on behind them." Valerie said.

"Big head, big brain, he is incredibly smart." Susan said watching as Dr. Cockroach showed something out of the pile to Mae and told her something about it.

"Yeah, big _ugly_ head, horrible over bite too." Valerie added.

"What he lacks in appearance he more than makes up for in personality, he may be a little crazy, but that just makes him more interesting, complete sanity is highly overrated and boring after a while. He's so charming, sweet and kind and considerate and always willing to help you out any way he can, certainly nothing like Derek." Susan said watching as Mae pulled something out of the pile, earning a smile and praise from Dr. Cockroach, before he took her hand and they went into his tent, "And so good with children."

"Susan Murphy!" Valerie suddenly said staring wide eyed at Susan as if she'd grown a second head.

"What?" Susan asked.

"Tell me you're not." Valerie said.

"Not what?" Susan asked, confused.

"Falling in love with the mutant cockroach." Valerie said.

"He's not a mutant cockroach, he's a human who-" Susan started to automatically reply then stopped, "What? In love with him? No- I mean- I- I've never really thought-" she stopped again for a long moment before a slight smile started to tug at the corners of her mouth, "Maybe I am." she finally admitted quietly.

"Oh great, so you didn't even realize you were falling for him before I said something?" Valerie asked.

"No, I mean it's just not something I've really thought about since the whole mess with Derek." Susan replied.

"Great, your parents are probably going to kill me for being the one to make you realize it. Honestly though it has been almost a year and a half since you split up with Derek, it's certainly time you moved on. I just would have thought it would be someone a little more human." Valerie said.

"I don't know, he was human and he'd be more likely to understand and be able to handle my condition." Susan pointed out.

"He's still ugly." Valerie said.

"So he's not the best looking guy on earth, but he's smart and nice. Derek was pretty good looking and dumb and selfish. I'd take brains and a good personality over good looks any day after dealing with Derek." Susan replied then grinned, "And man can he dance."

"Good point and I guess between you're condition and the fact that he used to be human it's not too bad." Valerie conceded "So he can dance?" she asked.

"Yes, he comes from quite big family of dancers." Susan told her.

"I don't suppose he knows ballet." Valerie said.

"At least a little." Susan replied, "Why?"

"I'm arranging a couple of charity performances one is White Christmas and the other is the Nutcracker to raise money for the local orphanage and a large family who has taken in about a dozen foster kids and lost everything in a fire a couple weeks ago. I'm having a hard time finding volunteers who know ballet for the Nutcracker and I still need more to find enough people for White Christmas." Valerie replied.

"Well he did mention that his grandmother was a ballerina and performed as Clara for a season and every year from the time he was seven until he was mutated she made him perform as the nutcracker." Susan told her.

"Oh how perfect, as long as he doesn't freak people out it might draw more people in to see one of the monsters that saved the world. Too bad you don't know ballet, you could have been Clara." Valerie said.

"I'm sure he'd be willing to teach me, he's already taught me how to waltz." Susan told her.

"That would be perfect then." Valerie said.

* * *

That night the kids all slept over, camping out in the back yard with Susan and Dr. Cockroach.

"What's it look like from way up there?" Mae asked looking up at Susan as she came out of her tent after returning to her usual size.

Susan smiled, "I can see a lot farther, over the houses and stuff and out into the county." she replied then held her hand down next to Mae, "Do you want to see?" She asked.

Mae grinned and climbed onto her hand, vigorously shaking her head yes, "That would be awesome." she said.

"Hold on and don't stand up." Susan told her.

"Wow, it's amazing up here, I wish I was tall like you." Mae said as Susan lifted her hand up.

Susan sighed, "It's not as fun as it looks." she said.

"What wouldn't be cool about being super tall and strong, and nearly indestructible?" Richard asked.

Susan sat down, letting Mae crawl onto her knee to sit, "It is really amazing being able to do stuff no one else can, and being stronger than you ever imagined possible is amazing and it's so nice to not have to worry so much about getting hurt and stuff, but all of that comes with a pretty high price." Susan told them, "By the time your uncle was able to find a way to make me smaller again, it had been well over a year since I had been able to hug my parents, I couldn't even talk to them without visiting them for a long time because I'm too big to use a normal phone, I couldn't live in a normal house or go shopping. I'm too big to go places like amusement parks or anywhere fun like that and when you're this big you eat more food, so much food that you can't have normal foods that you like, you have to eat stuff that's cheap and that a lot can be made of and most of that food tastes disgusting."

"Wow, I didn't think about that." Richard said.

"You couldn't even hug your mommy or daddy?" Mae asked looking up at Susan.

"No, I couldn't." Susan told her.

"But then uncle C. found a way to make you smaller again, because he's really smart and cool." Mae asked.

"Yep, he's pretty amazing." Susan agreed.

"Yeah, he's the best uncle in the whole world." Mae said suddenly sliding down Susan's leg to run over and hug Dr. Cockroach.

"Why thank you my dear." Dr. Cockroach said, returning the hug before she sat down in his lap and picked up a stick and bag of marshmallows to roast over the small campfire they had going.

"Can you tell us a scary story?" Richard asked.

"Yeah, tell us a scary story." the other kids chimed in.

"Alright, let's see, something scary." Dr. Cockroach said thinking for a moment.

"What's the scariest thing that's ever happened to you?" Samuel asked.

"That's easy." Dr. Cockroach replied, "It all started when a friend of mine from collage was in town and he and another friend of ours invited me to go to a monster movie double feature at the local theater. I tried to tell them I just couldn't go, it was a Tuesday and I was putting the final touches on what was supposed to be the greatest scientific achievement of my life. They kept insisting that I needed to get out and have a little fun, when I realized they wouldn't give in I finally went with them.

The movies that were showing that night were The Creature From the Black Lagoon about a pat fish, part man monster that killed people who trespassed into it's territory and The Blob about this gelatinous thing from outer space that ate people, all it had to do was get against them and it would start to dissolve them."

"Those sound creepy, especially the blob thing." Samuel said.

"It was, so creepy that I had a nightmare that night about having to find a way to stop the Blob while it was trying to catch me." Dr. Cockroach replied, "When I woke up from the nightmare I decided to just stay up and finish working on my experiment. Within a few hours I had finished it and was ready to test the machine I had built. It was still only five in the morning so there was no one else around, but I was so sure that it would work and that I wouldn't need anyone else's help that I tested it on myself. When I stepped out of the machine my entire body ached and I only made it a few steps away from the machine before I passed out.

When I woke up I was in a small room with metal walls and an open door that lead to a larger metal room. I stepped into the larger room and was horrified by what I saw, there sitting at a table was a fish like man and the Blob, neither one looked too much like the ones from the movies, the fish man was quite different and the blob had one eye and was an innocent looking blue, but the blob in the movie had been clear until it started eating people and turned red."

"What did you do?" Angela asked.

"I tried to silently back into the room I had come out of to look for another way out, but the fish man noticed me and started to walk towards me. I ran back into the room I had come out of and started desperately looking for a way out until the fish man came into the room and told me he wasn't going to hurt me and that there was no way out. I made sure to keep a good distance away from him, but listened to him as he explained where I was and assured me he and the blob wouldn't hurt me. The greatest shock was when he told me why I was there, until that moment I hadn't had a chance to realize how much my experiment had changed me and was horrified by it. I wanted desperately to return to my lab and find a way to reverse the effects, but there was no way, I was trapped with these terrifying monsters, creatures that shouldn't have existed outside of books and movies.

I spent the next week and a half or so in my room and avoiding the others as much as possible which wasn't easy, aside from the blob and fish man there was also a giant bug and a man who had made himself invisible due to an experiment. At first I thought perhaps I'd be able to get along with the invisible man, since he was also human, but he seemed to take great delight in scaring me when I didn't know he was there and making fun of my head.

Then I finally gave in and came out, deciding I didn't have any choice but to give the others a chance or I would go crazy from the solitude. I was just hesitantly walking over to the table where the others were sitting when they were given their food. I watched, quite horrified as the blob absorbed and dissolved a large piece of meat in much the same way the blob in the movie did." Dr. Cockroach told them.

"What happened next?" Richard asked.

"I spent the next month refusing to come out of my room and the next three months refusing to let the blob anywhere near me." Dr. Cockroach replied.

"What happened after that?" Mae asked.

"I eventually realized that the blob or B.O.B. as he's called, really wasn't going to eat me, that the fish man, Link wasn't so bad once you got to know him although he can still be quite annoying sometimes, that the giant bug was quite harmless as long as you didn't get to close to it's feet and that the Invisible Man was the most annoying being on earth." Dr. Cockroach replied.

"Cool, so do we get to meet the other monsters? We kind of saw them last Halloween, but we didn't actually get to meet any of them." Samuel asked.

"The Invisible Man died quite a while ago, but I'll make sure you get to meet the others." Dr. Cockroach replied.

"Cool." Samuel said.

"Now, I think its time you kids got some sleep." Dr. Cockroach said.

"But we're not sleepy." Mae said, yawning.

"If you don't get some sleep you'll be too tired to go exploring in the morning." Susan told them.

"Where are we going exploring?" Angela asked.

"I thought we could head to the woods down the old road, I always use to play there when I was a kid." Susan replied.

"Awesome, uncle C. is right, we should get some sleep." Richard said, "But how about some music to listen to while we fall asleep?" he asked as he ran up to the porch and grabbed a long box that they had brought with them and carried it over to Dr. Cockroach.

"What is this?" Dr. Cockroach asked as Richard set the box in front of him, his eyes widening as he opened the box, "My guitar, where on earth did you get this?" he asked as he pulled it out of the box and looked it over.

"Grandma has a bunch of your old stuff sitting in the attic and when we told her we were going to have a camp out she said you used to be really good at playing and singing for her, so she sent it along." Richard explained, "So will you play something for us?"

"I can try, it's been an awfully long time since I've played though, I'm not sure if I remember." Dr. Cockroach replied as he tuned the guitar. A couple minutes later he started to play or at least attempt to play, although it was riddled with mistakes, but after about ten minutes he was playing nearly perfectly and continued to play until all of the children were asleep.

"You play beautifully, especially considering how long it's been." Susan told him quietly when he stopped.

"I had a lot of practice, I performed with a band when I was in high school, even got to perform at a couple school dances." Dr. Cockroach told her as he put the guitar away then said good night.

* * *

The next morning Susan woke up to the feeling of all four children climbing around on her back, "What do you think you're doing?" she asked.

"Trying to wake you up, you and uncle C. said we could go hiking in the woods in the morning and it's morning." Angela told her.

Susan looked up and glanced out the partially opened tent flap, "Barely." she replied before laying her head back down.

"Aww, come on, wake up." Angela said crawling up to sit on her head.

"Yeah, we thought you would want to be awake to see how we wake uncle C. up." Richard said.

Susan slowly lifted her head so that Angela wouldn't fall off, "Okay, fine I'll get up, are you going to do the laugh again?" she asked.

"No, we've got something much better today." Samuel said as he jumped off of Susan's back, followed by the other kids.

"What do you have planned then?" Susan asked.

"You'll see." Richard said letting out a quite maniacal laugh.

"He's in trouble isn't he?" Susan asked.

"We're just going to make him pretty." Mae said as she and the other kids left the tent.

Susan crawled part way out of her tent and laid down so she could see into Dr. Cockroach's tent and watched as the kids grabbed a few things and headed into his tent. Richard carefully put a plastic tiara with a small opening on the back around the base of Dr. Cockroach's antennas so it would stay on his head unless it slid around at just the right angle for his antennas to slip through the opening on the back. Samuel and Mae put a couple elastic bracelets with big pink flowers around his wrists then Samuel took a camera and stepped back with Mae as Angela and Richard took two large pink bows with elastic bands on the back, and, stretching the elastic out as wide as they could, put them over his antennas as close as they could get to his head without actually touching him.

Silently counting down with Samuel they both let go of the elastic at the same time and stepped back as Samuel snapped a picture.

Dr. Cockroach flinched a little, and rolled to his side, but didn't wake up. Grinning the kids took a few more pictures of him. Once they seemed satisfied with the numbers of pictures they had, Angela pulled a small make up case out of her pocket and knelt in front of Dr. Cockroach.

She was just reaching out with a thing of lipstick when Dr. Cockroach's eyes snapped open and his hand shot out to catch her wrist, "You wouldn't want me to have to do something drastic as revenge, like turning you into a frog, now would you?" he asked.

"You're a scientist not a witch, witches turn people into frogs." Angela said.

"You're talking to a man with a cockroach's head my dear, I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to figure out how to give you a frog's head." he replied.

"You wouldn't really do that would you?" Richard asked, sounding like he didn't believe him, but still wanted to be reassured of that.

Dr. Cockroach waited a long moment, before letting go of Angela's arm and smiling, "Of course not." he finally replied getting up.

"Can we go hiking now?" Mae asked.

"Shouldn't we have some breakfast first?" Dr. Cockroach asked.

Angela picked up a back pack that was sitting near by, "We packed a picnic breakfast." she replied.

"Alright then, I suppose we can leave just as soon as we get Susan to a more normal size." Dr. Cockroach replied as he pulled out a container of the serum and a syringe.

"You have to stick her with a needle?" Mae asked.

"Yes, I'm afraid so, it's the only way to make her the same size as us." he told her.

"It's alright, it's just a little shot, it doesn't hurt too terribly much." Susan told her, "Oh and Doc, you're looking very pretty today." she said grinning as Dr. Cockroach stepped out of his tent, with the pink bows still around his antennas.

-

A few minutes later Susan came out of her tent, normal sized, "So are we ready to go?" she asked.

"Yeah!" was the answer from all four children.

"Good." Susan said.

They headed down a dirt and gravel path that at one point had been an ally way behind the houses, but had long ago been over grown and reduced to a foot path. At the end of the path, sitting behind a row of houses was a large wooded area, finding a way through the weeds and brambles they headed into the woods.

"This place is cool, do you think there are any animals out here?" Samuel asked.

"I don't know, there used to be a few deer when I used to play her when I was a little girl." Susan told him.

They had been walking for about five minutes when they came to a small clearing with a large, round tree at one side of it, This is where I always use to play." Susan told them kneeling down to look at the large roots of the tree that stuck up above the ground, "I can't believe this is still here." she said a moment later as she pulled a rusty tin out from among the roots then sat down to work the lid off of it.

After a moment she finally got the lid off, inside were pieces of plastic jewelry, a little doll, a few pretty rocks and a few pieces of folded paper, "So this was your stuff?" Angela asked.

"Yep, this was my treasure chest." Susan replied unfolding the pieces of paper to reveal various drawings of animals.

"Who's that?" Mae asked when she unfolded the last picture which was of a man and a woman in a fancy dress dancing together in the woods.

"Is that here?" Angela asked, "the trees look almost the same."

"Yes it's hear, and I think it was supposed to be me and probably my future husband or boyfriend. I always thought there was something magical and romantic about this clearing that was just perfect for dancing, with the way the ground is so nice and even in the clearing. I use to daydream about dancing with some handsome prince here all the time when I was your age, and a little older. I use to come out here and dance around all the time." she replied getting up and looking through the roots of the tree again until she pulled out an old tape player. "I don't think my parents ever did find out why this thing went missing." she said chuckling.

Susan put the things back into the tin and they pulled a sheet out of the back pack and all sat down to eat their picnic breakfast. They were about half done eating when Dr. Cockroach reached out and tapped Susan's arm then silently pointed out a deer and two fawns who's spots were nearly faded, that had just come into view of the clearing. Susan smiled at him then they both silently pointed the deer out to the children and sat watching them eat while they finished their own meal.


	6. Chapter 6

Well sadly it looks like I won't have the Christmas story up by Christmas, I haven't gotten it started yet and still need to add Link and B.O.B. to the last chapter of this one because I totally forgot about them when I was writing it. The last chapter of this one probably won't be up until sometime after Christmas, unless no one cares if Link and B.O.B. never show up or if the last chapter is kind of short, then I can just go ahead and post it the way it is. So let me know what you'd prefer.

The Christmas story will get written, the research for it is just taking longer than I thought it would, I'm trying to pull in some Christmas traditions from the 40's and 50's, things Dr. C would have been used to from when he was human, but I'm having a hard time finding anything, so if anyone knows of any good sites to find information like that I'd love to hear about them.

I'm also looking for information on Christmas tree fairies, while looking for Christmas songs from before Dr. C was mutated I found this one http:// www. youtube. com/ watch?v=Z4byi7DaW4o it'snd of sad, there has to be some story behind it, but so far all I've found is a little article saying that fairies use to be used as tree toppers in Great Briton, but that's all I've been able to find, no explanation as to why fairies were used instead of stars or angels, how the tradition started, old stories about them or anything. It's something I want to include in the story, but I want to find some more real information before I start making things up, so if anyone can help me out with this I would greatly appreciate it.

* * *

_Halloween early evening. _

"Come on girls, it's almost time for trick or treat to start." Mr. Murphy called up the stairs.

"We'll be right down, Mr. Murphy, we're just finishing up our hair." Mae called down before ducking back into the room where Susan was sitting with Angela in front of her while she finished tying her hair back, while Mrs. Murphy finished putting a few bobby pins in to hold on Susan's tiara.

"You look absolutely beautiful honey." Mrs. Murphy said stepping back to look at her.

"Yep, you look great, now we just have to go find prince charming." Angela told her smiling as she opened the door so they could head down stairs.

"Where are the boys?" Susan asked when they got down stairs.

"Still getting changed." Mr. Murphy told her, as he turned to look at her, "You look beautiful Suzy."

"You really think so daddy?" Susan asked smiling.

"Absolutely, darling, just as beautiful as you looked on your-" he stopped.

"What? On my wedding day?" Susan asked.

"Yes. I shouldn't have brought that up." Mr. Murphy said.

"It wasn't really a bad thing, it would have been worse if I had married that jerk, I need someone who's less self centered and smarter." Susan told him.

"How smart?" Mrs. Murphy asked from where she was looking out the window into the back yard then looked at Susan and raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?" Susan asked.

"Well, I've noticed you and Dr. C seem to be rather close." Mrs. Murphy replied.

"What? Well yes, but- I mean there's nothing really going on between us, I mean we're not dating or anything." Susan sputtered out, blushing slightly.

"Then what's with the costumes?" Mrs. Murphy asked.

"What do you mean?" Susan asked as she headed towards the window.

"I mean Cinderella and Prince Charming." Mrs. Murphy replied.

Susan's mouth dropped open slightly when she saw Dr. Cockroach's costume, "I had no idea." she finally said, her eyes never leaving Dr. Cockroach, "the kids didn't want to let each other see their costumes and Dr. C and I agreed."

"The kids?" Mr. Murphy asked as he joined them at the window.

"Yes." Susan replied, still unable to pull her eyes, from Dr. Cockroach or stop her self from noticing how dashing he looked in his costume.

"Why exactly did you not want to tell each other what costumes you got?" Mrs. Murphy asked Mae and Angela.

Mae giggled quietly and Angela hesitated a moment and glanced at Susan who was still staring out the window, "I think you should be more worried about what's going to happen to your floor when Susan starts drooling over uncle C." she said, earning a fit of giggles from Mae.

"What?!" Susan exclaimed, spinning around to face them, her cheeks burning a bright pink.

Angela grinned, "You heard me, you were standing there practically drooling over how good uncle C. looks in his costume." she said, slowly backing towards the back door.

"I- I was not." Susan denied. "You kids set these costumes up on purpose didn't you?" she asked.

"Then why are you blushing so much?" Angela asked as she and Mae slowly continued to back towards the back door, "And of course we set the costumes up, we figured it was worth a try, we considered locking you two in a room together, but since you've been living in that base together for almost a year and a half and still haven't admitted that you like each other, we figured that wouldn't work. Just wait until you see plan B if this one doesn't work." she said with a short maniacal laugh, before she and Mae raced out the back door.

Susan, deciding she really wasn't ready to deal with her parents after what Angela had said and raced after her. She only made it part way down the porch steps when she realized Dr. Cockroach was standing just off of the bottom of the steps, his mouth slightly open and eyes wide as he stared at her for a moment.

"You look positively radiant my dear." he finally said bowing formally and taking her hand and gently kissing it.

Susan hesitated a moment wondering if her heart had stopped or was simply beating too fast for her to tell, "And you look quite dashing." she replied finally coming the rest of the way down the stairs, "Do you know where you're nieces are?"

"Last I saw them they were heading east through the back yards with my nephews. Did they cause some type of trouble?" He asked.

Susan hesitated a moment, completely unsure of how to explain why she was chasing after the girls without having to explain what they had been trying to do, "Just being mischievous children, and in need of a good pounding." she finally said, removing her tiara and setting on the porch railing before heading for the small path that ran behind the houses.

"Would you like some help? Four against one doesn't seem like very fair odds, even for you." Dr. Cockroach said.

Deciding she was tired of waiting and wondering if he cared about her as much as she cared about him and really didn't care if the kids did tell him what they had been up to she replied, "Sure, but if it comes down to needing to give them a good pounding will you be able to stand up to Mae's big sad eyes?"

"If I absolutely have to, I think I can manage it." he replied as they headed down the path in the direction the children had gone, "I'm beginning to get the feeling they want us to follow them, they don't seem to have made any attempt to walk lightly or cover their tracks."

"So you think we're walking into a trap?" Susan asked.

"Very possibly." Dr. Cockroach replied, "Which is a rather scary thought after as much time as they've been spending around me."

"So you admit you're a bad influence on them?" Susan teased.

"Of course not, it just means they've become very creative and cunning over the last couple of weeks." Dr. Cockroach replied as they walked into the small wooded area at the end of the path.

Susan gasped and lurched forward as her heal caught in a root, Dr. Cockroach quickly catching her arm to keep her from falling, "Are you alright?" he asked.

"I'm fine, these heals just aren't made for this type of terrain, I should have changed shoes before we came after the kids." she replied, looking at the ground for a moment to hide a small smile and blush when Dr. Cockroach made no move to let go of her hand as they continued through the trees.

A few minutes later the tracks they were following seemed to vanish as they entered the small clearing where Susan had played as a child.

"This can't be good, what do you think they're up to?" Dr. Cockroach asked.

Before Susan could reply soft classical music stated to play from somewhere nearby, "Perhaps their not being as mischievous as you thought, didn't you say the other day that you always thought this would be a beautiful place to dance?" Dr. Cockroach asked turning to face her.

Susan smiled, "Yes, yes I did." she replied placing her hand in his as they began to dance gracefully around the clearing.

Susan was just starting to think maybe the kids didn't have anything too bad or embarrassing planned when the music changed from the simple classical music to Kiss The Girl from The Little Mermaid. She lost her footing for a second, but quickly regained it, a little shocked that Dr. Cockroach seemed to be totally unaware of what his nieces and nephews were up to until he whispered, "Don't react, it'll just encourage then."

"You don't seem bothered by this, did you know they were planning this?" Susan asked, carefully keeping her face neutral.

"This and the costumes, no, but I was expecting them to pull something like this." Dr. Cockroach replied.

"Why would you have been expecting something like this?" Susan asked.

"They've been trying to convince me to ask you out for two weeks now." Dr. Cockroach told her.

"And what did you tell them?" Susan asked.

"That I didn't think you would be interested in an old man with a big ugly cockroach head." he replied.

"I thought you said you were permanently twenty nine?" Susan said.

"True." Dr. Cockroach replied.

"And that cockroach head isn't really so bad once you get use to it." Susan continued.

"So does that mean if I were to ask you out on a date it wouldn't freak you out?" He asked.

"Not one bit." she replied smiling.

"It's not exactly a normal date, but there's a ball room dancing competition on New Years Eve, would you care to enter it with me?" Dr. Cockroach asked.

"I'd love to and I love a man who can come up with unusual ideas for dates." Susan replied slipping her arms up to loosely rest around Dr. Cockroach's shoulders.

"You know it'll mean putting in a lot of time practicing." he told her smiling at her as he let his arms wrap loosely around her waist.

"Yes, many, many hours of practicing," she said smiling, "I can't think of a better way to spend my time than dancing with you."

"Oh they really put some effort into this didn't they?" Susan said as holographic fireflies and butterflies appeared and began to circle around then.

"Yes, they did, at least now I know what happened to the projector I couldn't find." Dr. Cockroach replied.

"So should we leave them wandering what we've been talking about and unsure of how well their little plot worked or should we give them what they want?" Susan asked.

"That's entirely up to you my dear." Dr. Cockroach replied.

Susan smiled, "Such a gentleman. Well they did go through all this trouble to get us together, it would be rather cruel to disappoint them after all their weeks of plotting." she said, as the song ended she leaned up to gently kiss him.

A moment later when they stopped, cheers rang out from behind a few trees, "You know you kids are missing trick or treat?" Dr. Cockroach called to them although his eyes never left Susan's.

"This is so totally better than trick or treating." Angela said.

"But we should go get at least some candy." Samuel said.

"Yep, right after I find a good place to hide this." Richard said holding up a video camera before racing off through the trees with Angel and Samuel close behind him.

Mae walked over to Susan and took her hand, "Can I call you aunt Susan now?" she asked.

"Sure you can." Susan replied.

"Cool, will you come trick or treating with me aunt Susan and you too uncle C." she asked.

"I'd love to." Susan replied.

"Me too." Dr. Cockroach replied as Mae took his hand in her other hand and they headed back to the house.


	7. Chapter 7

I am so sorry about taking so long to get this posted, I had finished writing it and then realized that Link, Bob and Insecto never showed up, so I was going to add them, but just couldn't seem to come up with anything good so I've finally given up on adding them.

* * *

"Where did you disappear to?" Mrs. Murphy asked when Susan came into the house to get Mae's trick or treat bucket.

Susan hesitated a moment as she grabbed Mae's bucket, "Well the kids sort of set something up for us."

"Something that has to do with the costumes they picked out for you two?" Mrs. Murphy asked.

"Yeah." Susan replied.

"And?" Mrs. Murphy asked.

"And, well, how would you feel about it if Dr. C and I started dating?" Susan asked.

Mrs. Murphy smiled, "If I hadn't been expecting it for a while now I might be a little freaked out, but he obviously genuinely cares about you and he treats you with so much more respect than Derek ever did, so I guess I'm alright with it." she told her.

"Expecting it?" Susan asked.

"Susan my dear I had four brothers, I'm quite good at noticing when a man is around a woman he likes and even with the cockroach head it wasn't that hard for me to tell from the way he looks at you that he's liked you for quite a while." Mrs. Murphy told her.

"Do you think daddy will be as okay with this as you are?" Susan asked.

"He'll be fine with it." Mrs. Murphy assured her, then asked, "Have you two kissed yet?"

Susan blushed slightly, "Yes, why?" she asked.

"Hah! I knew it." Mrs. Murphy said.

"What?" Susan asked a little confused by her mother's reaction.

"That you two would have kissed before the end of the night. You're father and I made a little bet after you two took off after the kids, he said it would probably be some time after you went back to that base before you two kissed, I said you two would kiss before the night was over and, well, he's going to be doing dishes for a week now." Mrs. Murphy explained.

"Did you find my bucket?" Mae asked coming into the house.

"Yes, here it is." Susan replied handing it to her then turning to give her mom a quick hug, "Thanks for being so understanding." she told her.

"You're happiness is what's important and at least at some point in time he used to be human. Now go have fun, I'll see you later." Mrs. Murphy said.

When every one got back to the Murphy's house after trick or treating was over Samuel ran up to Dr. Cockroach, "Can I turn it on now?" he asked grinning up at him.

Dr. Cockroach smiled, "Yes, go ahead." he told him.

Samuel ran over to the side of the house and flipped a switch, turning on several holographic projectors that made several ghosts flying around the yard and even more circling around just above the roof.

"This is amazing." Susan said wrapping her arm around Dr. Cockroach's as she looked around at all the ghosts flying around the house.

"It was all I could think of, I wanted to contribute something a little more impressive than just motion detectors, but your parent's already had so much it was all I could really think of." Dr. Cockroach replied placing his hand over Susan's where it rested on his arm.

An hour or so later Susan and Dr. Cockroach slipped out to the back yard to get away from the hyper and noisy masses of children still swarming around the front yard.

"Well, now we know where Angela and Richard disappeared to earlier." Dr. Cockroach said inspecting a CD player and projector that were now sitting on a table outside of his tent and turned the CD player on.

"May I have this dance?" he asked bowing formally and holding out his hand.

"I'd love to, my prince." Susan replied curtsying then taking his hand as they began to dance.

When the song changed to Kiss the Girl, Dr. Cockroach shook his head, "I have such cunning nieces and nephews." he said.

"They most certainly are." Susan replied.

"I wonder what other songs they have on that CD." Dr. Cockroach said.

"I don't know, I guess we'll just have to keep dancing until we find out." Susan replied smiling at him.

"I can't think of a more pleasant way to spend the evening." he said smiling at her then glancing up towards the table, when butterflies suddenly appeared circling them.

The projector had been set up and turned on and there was just enough light coming from the front yard to make out four shadowy figures hiding on the other side of his tent.

Susan smiled, "This has to be the best Halloween ever." she said.

"I couldn't agree more." Dr. Cockroach replied gently kissing her forehead as they continued to dance long into the night.

* * *

I do have ideas for a sequel or two, but it'll probably be quite a while until I get around to writing them, so leave this story on your alerts list and I'll post a note as a new chapter here to announce when I start posting it.


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